A Wolf in His Belly
by Spiritus Rex
Summary: Things get a little more interesting when Hiro sees his brother's daemon outside of the flames, knows that his brother isn't dead after running into the fire, and then decides to run in after him. After all, someone's got to help. He and his own daemon are more than cut out for the job. (Or: the "everyone has daemons" AU that no one asked for but I picked up and sprinted with)


"Huh, never would've pegged you for a raven."

Hiro startles and spins around, the tool he holds in his hand now raised in his fists as an impromptu weapon. He lowers it when he catches sight of who spoke, and Gogo raises an eyebrow from where she is leaning against the Hamada's garage door.

Hiro sighs. "She hasn't settled yet," he says, nodding his head in the direction of his daemon. Turen fluffs up her breast feathers in indignation. She can hear the bitter tone of Hiro's voice better than Gogo can.

Gogo makes a hum of understanding, and Hiro doesn't know if she means to or if it's a subconscious action, but she lowers a hand from its crossed position over her chest to let her palm rest on her own daemon's head. The lean cheetah rubs up into Gogo's hand, and then turns his eyes on Hiro and Turen also. "There's nothing wrong with continuing to test out your options until something clicks." Gogo says, "Hector didn't settle until I was ten, and that was after a whole mess of different animals were tried."

Ten. Hiro looks at the cheetah, who looks right back at him, then looks at Gogo. How could someone have been so sure of themselves at such a young age? "Yeah, we'll keep working on it," he responds, before turning back around, putting the tool in his hands back to work at the job it had been doing before Gogo had suddenly shown up. "Why're you here? Tadashi's upstairs in the cafe."

Gogo moves further into the garage, but pauses to peer at one of the bright holographic screens that Hiro has projecting an exploded model of a microbot. Hector moves gracefully around her, padding on near silent paws to the back of the garage to investigate a bin of old metal and junk. Turen watches him, before settling more comfortably onto her shelf that she is perching on. Gogo shrugs, "Tadashi practically sings your praises at school, kid. So I wanted to see you in your natural habitat I guess."

Hiro blinks and turns to her, again abandoning his work. "Really?"

Gogo nods.

"Well, I haven't really finished much. Just the main plans for how things are going to fit together, none of the inside coding yet. So there's not much to see." Hiro is worried, suddenly, that Tadashi has built him up in the minds of these people he does not know very well, and that he's going to let them down. Even though the microbots are promising, and Tadashi's proud smile when he looks at Hiro's plans is the largest one he's seen in a long time, Hiro still feels that worry.

Hector has found the messy red armchair shoved into the corner at the back of the garage, and curls up on it. Gogo makes her way over to her daemon to sit down heavily in the chair as well, her back leaning against the large cat's body and left legs. She waves her hand in the air, dismissive of Hiro's explanation of why the microbots might not be up to snuff just yet, "Doesn't matter, just get to work, genius. We're not going to be bothering you any."

Hiro swallows, shares a glance with Turen, and then turns back to his work. Turen hops down from the shelf a few minutes later to stand on the desk beside him, her sleek and capable beak helping to pick out small nuts and bolts, or hold and carry the tools he needs while he works. Gogo and Hector watch from the chair, and Hiro pretends he cannot feel their eyes on him. Eventually though, he and Turen manage to work themselves into some kind of groove, a zone of focus, and he doesn't have to pretend anymore.

Tadashi comes down into the garage later, and stops in surprise at seeing Gogo and Hector there, watching Hiro while he works away. Amalthea comes up beside him, her head and pointed ears nudging at Tadashi's waist to push him further into the garage. Tadashi's still a bit shocked though, so it takes another nudge from the german shepherd akita mix for him to move all the way in. Hiro doesn't really notice.

"This is kinda surprising," Tadashi whispers to Gogo when he makes it across the garage. He also has his eyes on Hiro now, safe in the corner where he'll sometimes sit and watch a TV show on one of the computer monitors if Hiro needs him there to bounce ideas off of. Usually though, once he gets rolling with an idea, Hiro is a solitary worker. Tadashi knows Hiro is content to just invent and code the days away with only Turen by his side as he does so. "Hiro doesn't like to have people around when he works on things."

"He and Turen are lab hogs," Amalthea chimes in. Hector snickers, the side of his chest rumbling against Gogo's back, and she shifts slightly to allow the cheetah more room on the chair.

Gogo shrugs. "This has been a learning experience," she says simply, smiling at her friend, then looking back to Hiro. Without making eye contact with Tadashi again, she asks, "Is now the time when we should be leaving?"

"Eh, you can leave whenever, really. I was just coming down to remind Hiro and Turen that, yes, eating is something both humans and daemons need in order to live," Tadashi explains, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall as he makes his voice a little louder so it will carry over to Hiro. Hiro jumps a little bit, but not as much as he had when Gogo had arrived, and turns to stick his tongue out at Tadashi while Turen hops from his shoulder to the top of his head with a quick and careful flap of her wings.

"He's on a roll though," Turen says, gesturing at her human. Hiro nods, and makes the most innocent face he can. It works on hardened bot fighters every night, but Tadashi is nearly immune after so many years with Hiro in his life.

"And he can get back on a roll _after_ he actually has some food in his body." Tadashi looks pointedly at Hiro, and Hiro drops the innocent expression to frown and squint at his brother. Gogo and Hector watch the exchange amusedly, and Turen huffs.

"Relentless nerd," Hiro grumbles, but it's not spitefully. He presses a button on the holographic screen to save his work, and then the blue lights power down. Turen has to shift her feet and work her talons gently against his already messy and thick hair when Hiro turns so that she can stay sitting on his head. They both say goodnight to Gogo before leaving the garage and heading up into the Hamada home, because they know she'll probably be leaving. Hiro looks like he wants to say more, but Turen tugs on his hair and gives him a knowing glance. He winces, swats at her a bit, but doesn't say whatever it was he'd been thinking about before he turns and is gone.

Gogo stands from the chair and stretches her arms above her head while Hector claws the concrete and extends his back in a similar stretch. "Well, guess I can't say that all the stuff you've said about him is untrue anymore," Gogo comments lightly to Tadashi.

Tadashi chuckles. "You've never said it was untrue in the first place though."

"Doesn't mean I wasn't thinkin it."

"Nah, I suppose it doesn't."

She understands now though, just how truly and naturally _intelligent_ Hiro Hamada is. After watching him work away at his microbots - which will undoubtedly get him a place at SFIT - for however many hours she and Hector had been sitting in that chair, she understands now.

But there is still one thing she doesn't understand. "So… unsettled?"

Hector tenses when Amalthea does, and Tadashi doesn't say anything for a moment before sighing. "Yeah." He takes off his hat to scratch at the side of his head. "He and Turen have been cycling through a few of the same things recently though, so hopefully it'll be soon."

"Hopefully it won't be an octopus though," Amalthea says. Her moment of tenseness has passed, and she shakes and shivers as if she's just gotten a chill, "I hate it when Turen's an octopus. She wraps those tentacles around me when she tries to ride on my back and it's just _awful._ "

"You let her do that? Just tell her not to," Hector snorts. "I'd never let any other daemon try and ride on my back, _especially_ like _that._ "

Gogo cuts in before the daemons can get into any kind of disagreement or argument, "Tell him to try some meditation or introspective exercises maybe," she says to Tadashi, "I've heard it helps for people with late to settle daemons."

"Turen isn't late to settle, and she won't be. Late to settle is like. When you're sixteen or over or something," Tadashi says. "Hiro's just… really insecure about it." He shrugs.

Gogo nods, purses her lips in thought for a moment, before she stretches one more time and begins to leave. Hector smoothly follows her. "Well, like I said, meditation. Introspective exercises. Can't hurt, can they?" She points at Tadashi as she stands in the open garage door, "Keep an eye on him, and call us up if he needs a de-stressing pizza party, alright Hamada?"

Tadashi grins, but it's not his best, and he nods. "Will do, stay safe on those streets on your way home."

"Do you even know me at all?"

"Yes and if I get a call in two hours asking to identify your body squished across the pavement, I will be very disappointed."

"So will I."

"Hector, you great big traitor."

Tadashi and Amalthea laugh together then, and Gogo and Hector leave, leaving the two of them standing in the garage amidst all of Hiro's work.

For awhile, after their laughter had faded, Tadashi just stands in silence and breathes steadily. Amalthea looks up at him knowingly. "He'll do great," she says, nudging at her human with her nose again. Tadashi smiles, and puts his hand on her head, rubbing his thumb down the crease between Amalthea's eyes and on the top of her nose in a comforting motion for the both of them.

"Yeah, I know he will."

* * *

Hiro is nervous, and Turen reflects that. She is a small mouse, squeezed close to him, huddled between the folds of his hoodie and against his neck. The SFIT Student Expo is loud, and there's so _many_ incredible pieces of tech in just one space, that Hiro is feeling just a bit overwhelmed.

"You'll be fine," Turen squeaks into his ear. But Hiro can hear her nerves as well, can feel her tiny mouse heart pounding in her chest. She's trying to comfort him but his anxiety is infecting her, and Hiro feels so bad about that that he tries to take a few deep breaths and disconnect for a moment from everything so he can focus before he has to go on stage.

Tadashi's hand lands heavily on his shoulder, the shoulder that Turen is not curled up against. "What's goin on?" Tadashi asks, leaning down to look into Hiro's face.

He sees the blank look that Hiro has in his eyes, before Hiro slowly comes back, and then looks at him. "I really, _really_ wanna go here," Hiro confesses.

Whatever Tadashi says next is lost to Hiro's nerves and to the post-presentation adrenaline. He hops off of the stage, Turen a small dog at his heels, barking and yipping happily at their success and at the fact that Hiro had managed to impress so many people. Turen and Amalthea jump and dance with each other while Hiro and Tadashi fist bump, and then Honey Lemon's bright daemon is swooping in to flap his wings above the two excited dogs, while Hector and Gogo look on proudly, Wasabi's chinchilla churrs her praises from Wasabi's shoulder, and Fred and his lizard are just all over the place.

"You were amazing!" Honey Lemon cheers, pulling Hiro up into her arms and completely lifting him off the floor when he stumbles back from the fist bump and right into her.

"Truly incredible!" chimes in her daemon, as Honey let's Hiro drop to the floor. Wasabi ruffles his hair, Tadashi pats his back again, and Hiro is sure he will never be able to stop grinning.

"Yes, indeed, _incredible._ "

The unexpected, and very suave voice has the group of friends going still. Hiro's smile that he thought would never fade drops from his face as he turns to the stranger. Turen shifts in that moment, from a puppy without any cares into a stiff and guarded cat, yellow eyes calculating as they scrape over the appearance of Alistair Krei.

Krei smiles at them, with his daemon, a hog-nosed snake, draped neatly and professionally around his shoulders. Krei's assistant is dutifully two steps behind him as he approaches Hiro, with her own daemon, a solid grey greyhound, at her side.

Turen, taking into account her new size and weight - Hiro can feel the consideration in the weight she puts on her paws - skillfully leaps and climbs up Hiro's body, until he has moved his arms and she is resting comfortably in them.

"Alistair Krei," Hiro says, and he compulsively searches for Tadashi, eyes flickering to the side as he avoids eye contact with Krei and looks for his brother and the comforting presence of Amalthea at his side. Tadashi steps forwards into Hiro's line of sight, and Hiro looks back at Krei with that support finally where he needs it to be.

"May I?" Krei extends a hand. Hiro knows exactly what he's asking for.

"Don't," Turen hisses, for only Hiro to hear, flashing her new sharp teeth. Hiro reaches into his pocket and pulls out a microbot anyways.

Krei flips it in his fingers, praises it, and then, without handing it back, offers Hiro a place at Krei Tech.

Professor Callaghan comes up out of nowhere, his old daemon, a strong, very large Gray Wolf that certainly must have been intimidating back in the day, pushing through the crowd and placing herself bodily between Hiro and Krei. Krei's daemon hisses in response, tail curling and tightening against her human's collar. "Zaila."

Callaghan's daemon, Zaila, hardly blinks at the snake's hiss. "Synnove," she greets calmly, her smile showing far too much teeth.

There is clearly an old rivalry between them, and their humans as well, if the deathly glare that Callaghan is giving to Krei is any indication. "I wouldn't trust Krei Tech with your microbots," Callaghan warns Hiro, words firm, before the tone turns icy and he glares at Krei once more. "Or _anything else_."

So Hiro declines the offer. But it's not because of what Callaghan said, or because of the uncomfortable feeling he gets from Krei either. It's because Tadashi was standing on one side of him and Amalthea was standing on the other side, and Hiro knows that Krei Tech is not where he is supposed to be going.

Krei almost makes it out with Hiro's microbot tucked into his sleeve, and Hiro knows in that moment, when he catches the bot after Krei tosses it to him so carelessly, bitter at being caught, that he made the right decision.

He's distracted though, when Callaghan hands him an envelope.

"I look forward to seeing you in class," Callaghan says warmly, and Hiro almost forgets how to breathe when he sees the SFIT logo stamped on the front of the envelope. Zaila smiles a wolfish smile that is as kind as any wolf smile can be, and she bows her head to Hiro before she and Callaghan disappear back into the crowd, off to observe and offer criticism to the other inventions and inventors. There had been something else in that nod though. Zaila had seemed almost… sad. Regretful. Apologetic.

Hiro doesn't dwell on the wolf daemon very long, because suddenly, Turen is a small bird. What kind of bird she is doesn't matter, just that she's chirping and hopping on Hiro's shoulders energetically, and pecking at his hair to get his attention while saying, "I told you so! I knew you'd be fine. Look at you! College boy! Look at youuuuu!"

Amalthea's head becomes Turen's new perch when Hiro is surrounded by his friends again, hugged and congratulated as they leave the Student Expo, because there's nothing there for them anymore, no need to see the other tech, not now that Hiro's just beaten it all and there's celebrating to be done.

"Hey Aunt Cass, we'll catch up," Tadashi says as he pulls Hiro aside when they're outside the Expo building.

"Alright, but don't take too long!" Aunt Cass says, while her daemon, a calico cat nicknamed Mochi, stands at her feet and purrs and looks just as proud as she feels. Cass goes and drags both her boys into around the neck hugs, "OOooohh I'm so proud of you! My college men!"

"Aunt Cass," Hiro whines, without heat, as Turen is dislodged from his shoulder and begins to fly chirping circles in the air above his and Tadashi's heads. Amalthea is grinning, tongue lolling out of her mouth as she pants happily.

"Oh alright, but don't take long! Lots of sweets will be eaten tonight!" Aunt Cass says as one final goodbye, and then she and Mochi rush off to catch up with the rest of the gang.

Meanwhile, Tadashi motions with his head to the side, and Hiro follows as he and Amalthea lead the way to a small bridge on the campus that is near to the Expo, but people-less and quiet.

"I couldn't have done this without you," Hiro remembers saying.

He also remembers saying, "Tadashi _no!_ "

In fact, he remembers screaming it.

But Tadashi didn't listen. Tadashi didn't listen even as Amalthea barked and snapped at him and tried to keep him away.

"All of you, stop it! Callaghan is _still in there_."

"And what, that means you run in and-" Amalthea begins, angrily, worried for her human. The fire is large and hot and pouring from the broken glass of the Expo building. Hiro is so afraid, and Turen is once again huddling in his hood, this time as a thin type of weasel, her body stretched along his back and trembling as she calls out for Amalthea, for Tadashi, for anyone.

"No, it means that _someone_ has to help."

Tadashi runs forward and up the stairs. Amalthea is hot on his heels, and tries to snap her jaws shut on his blazer and hold him back, but she is unsuccessful. Tadashi's hat flies off when he dodges her though, landing with a weight it doesn't have against the cobbled stone, and then Tadashi disappears into the flames.

And then the Expo explodes.

With Tadashi still inside.

Hiro is blown backwards by the force of the explosion, and very nearly crushes Turen between his back and the concrete when he hits it. Turen pushes her way out of his hoodie and screams, but Hiro can't hear it over the roaring in his ears. He thinks he blacks out for a moment, or whites out; whatever word there is for when everything in your mind becomes like both a ski slope in a storm and yet a black hole at the same time. The fire is so hot and his hands bleed as he pushes himself up and then falls back on his elbows a little bit, because god, the entire building is encased in flame and smoke now.

Hiro stumbles to his feet, already screaming. " _Tadashi_!" he cries at the top of his lungs. His voice sounds like it's coming in through water though, and his head hurts while it spins. A concussion. But Hiro pushes himself through it. He leaves Turen on the ground behind him and she scrambles on her tiny little legs to catch up to him when he runs toward the fire.

She crashes into the back of Hiro's thigh when he freezes, because there on the ground is Tadashi's hat. Hiro picks it up and holds it tightly between his hands, and then looks up to the fire and screams again. " _Tadashi!"_

Someone else is also screaming Tadashi's name.

Hiro turns to look who it is, and sees Amalthea, covered in black soot and light up in red with how close she is to the fire. She's barking, whining, crying, limping, jumping all around right at the edge of the Expo stairs. "Tadashi! Tadashi _please!_ " Amalthea howls, her hind legs dragging when she tries to turn around, as if she could pace before the fire until her human returns to her. _"Tadashi!"_

Seeing her though, seeing Amalthea still alive, still outside the fire, is the equivalent of someone dumping a cold bucket of water over Hiro's head. He is doused in relief almost instantly, because if Amalthea has not exploded into Dust, then Tadashi is still alive.

But Amalthea looks hurt, even though Hiro can see no physical injury, which means that Tadashi is _definitely_ hurt. The distance that they are from each other is likely not helping the pain either. Amalthea and Tadashi are too far apart, their bond too close to snapping, and Hiro can see by the way she digs her feet against the stairs and whines that Amalthea would run into the fire to be with Tadashi if only she thought she could without dying.

So, for Amalthea, and for himself, and for Tadashi, Hiro scoops Turen into his hands and runs towards the fire without any hesitation. Any hesitation could have resulted in him not running in, and the fire department hasn't arrived yet, so there is no one else.

 _Someone has to help._

"Hiro what the hell are you doing?!" Turen shrieks in Hiro's arms. He ignores her, and shoves her down into his hoodie a bit rougher than intended. Then he zips it up all the way, pulls it over his mouth, yanks his hood over the top of his head, and dives into the flames.

Amalthea howls behind him. "Hiro not you too! No _no no!_ "

It's so hot inside, so very unbearably hot. Hiro can feel the skin of his exposed legs tighten and redden as he tries to find a safe path deeper into the building. Bars and bits of walls and broken glass barriers are collapsed and strewn all in his way, and one of the only still hanging SFIT banner burns away near the ceiling which is also burning. Hiro can barely see three feet in front of him with the smoke and the heat, so instead he shouts and hopes to be able to hear his way around.

"Tadashi! Make some kind of sound if you hear me!" Hiro shouts, before he breaks off into coughing. If he gets out alive, there will definitely be some issues with his lungs. Long exposure to smoke and inhaling that smoke never ends in good things. He pushes his way further in, beneath a broken plaster pillar that had fallen against the front doors, and repeats the same message, coughing again at the end.

But this time, he gets a response.

 _"Hhhere-"_

Whether Tadashi said 'Here' or 'Hiro' doesn't matter. Hiro finds the safest route through the intense flames - with a bit of help from Turen, who is in the form of a rat now, and has poked her head up beneath his chin and is helping as best she can - towards where he had heard Tadashi speak from. His legs are definitely burnt now, and they hurt _so_ _badly_ , but he has to make it through.

Tadashi looks terrible when Hiro finally sees him through the flames. He's on his stomach, a beam of metal from the ceiling crushing his legs, and he's got his right eye squeezed shut. Tadashi's right arm looks badly hurt too, and burnt as well, like he'd tried to duck and shield himself with only it when the explosion had gone off at the front of the large expo room. Hiro is by his side in an instant, fingers burning as he tries to pull the metal beam off of his brother.

"Hi...ro…?" Tadashi groans, and he sounds like he's choking when he draws in a breath. Hiro says nothing, just bites his lip and pulls harder on the metal, but it's hot, and he knows that he isn't very strong.

"Turen?" Hiro pleads, begging for her to take his desperation in this moment and shift into something larger that can help him. Turen worms her way out of Hiro's hoodie, and drops to the floor immediately, though she lets out a small yelp of pain. The floor must be hot too, all of the thick carpet smouldering in the smoke.

Turen shifts though, into exactly what Hiro's need for strength requires. She stands, head to head with him, a large but young grizzly bear. She then lowers down onto all four of her paws, and quickly moves around to Tadashi's other side to see if there is any place she can grab the hot metal and lift it away without hurting him too much. Hiro still is pulling at the beam, eyes squeezed tightly shut as he works against the fire around him and the weight to keep trying to move it. He doesn't make any progress until Turen brings up her large paws, and then aggressively grabs at the ridges of the beam. Tadashi lets out a pained and strangled scream when the beam is pushed and tossed away by Turen's strength, and then just continues to lie prone on the ground.

"C'mon Tadashi," Hiro says, and he helps Turen maneuver Tadashi up and onto her back. They'll suffer later the consequences of Tadashi touching Hiro's daemon, the consequences of such a strong act of trust and love happening when Tadashi is all but unconscious, but right now the situation is too dire, and without Turen's help Hiro would never be able to carry his much larger big brother out of danger. Tadashi's hands and feet hang over each side of her body, and Turen is just small enough that they scrape the ground. Tadashi manages to pull his hands up close to himself, his right arm tucked into his chest, but he can't seem to move his legs. Hiro can't bring himself to look at them either.

Something dark slithers past them, across the floor, around the flaming debris, while Hiro is guiding them back. Hiro won't think anything of it or even remember that he noticed it until later, until it is too late. He can hear the fire department now, pulling up to the scene, with their sirens blaring loudly. He and Tadashi and Turen have to get out of the Expo building before the hoses get brought out, because those are powerful, and dangerous, and the water will do Tadashi and his burns no good. The front of the building though, where the explosion had happened, is a completely impassable wall of fire.

"It'll be okay," Hiro chokes, patting Tadashi's back as his brother coughs and does his best to nod. Tadashi trusts Hiro, but all Hiro feels is sick. For once, his big brain isn't offering him any solutions. The fire department outside sound frantic, and the ceiling of the building is cracking and making worrisome noises, like it's going to descend on them at any moment. Amalthea can be heard too, struggling and howling as Hiro guesses she is letting the fire fighters know that her human and his little brother are still inside the building.

Hiro takes the chance. There's no other angle out that he can see. He grabs Turen by the scruff of her coarse grizzly neck and _runs_ forward through the fires just as he had when entering the Expo building.

It's all very anticlimactic, them bursting out of the fire, because the moment that they do, Hiro trips. He falls down the stone stairs, and both Turen and Amalthea shout for him as he hits head on the ground for the second time in the night. This time though, Hiro does not recover from the black out, and he slumps bonelessly against the concrete as the firefighters and their daemons surge forward to help.

* * *

Tadashi has to use a wheelchair while his legs heal. They'd been broken by the beam falling and crushing them, and he'd needed surgery to put metal rods in and realign the bones, as well as surgery for all the burnt skin. Thankfully his legs had only been covered in second degree burns. His right arm is in a cast as well, and his face and forehead are bandaged. He's going to need physical therapy, the doctors say, when Tadashi is released to go home, the wheels of the wheelchair squeaking loudly and Amalthea curled up as gently and tightly as she can curl in Tadashi's lap. He's going to need physical therapy for his legs and his arm when he's able to start using them again. He won't ever get the full range of motion in his arm back though, because the burns had been severe, and right around his joints, and the muscles will ache for a long, long time even after recovery. He might walk stiffly and never quite correctly ever again either, because the breaks on top of the burns just were a recipe for disaster.

Hiro's legs are not broken, but they are burned as well, even if it's not as severely as Tadashi's arm had been. Hiro's legs have to be wrapped in gauze almost all the time. His hands have to stay wrapped up too. His fingers, the palms, and his knuckles are all burnt and covered in blisters from when he'd tried to lift the beam off of his brother. Hiro sees Tadashi looking at his hands with sad, guilty eyes.

"Good thing I'm left handed, huh, Hiro?" Tadashi jokes as Aunt Cass wheels him into the cafe towards the stairs that lead up to their home. Tadashi is going to have trouble getting up those. And trouble getting down. What had the doctors been thinking, releasing him so soon to go home? Hiro purses his lips and tries to decide if he should smile or not. "I guess you're stuck though. Gonna be writing thesis papers with your teeth, little bro."

Hiro decides not to laugh or smile or say much of anything, and simply cradles Turen in his arms as he limps and struggles his own way following Tadashi and Aunt Cass inside. Turen is a mouse again; quiet and small, her little nose snuffling and poking at Hiro's cheek in a comforting manner when she climbs up his sleeve to sit against his neck.

Amalthea has to get off of Tadashi's lap for Aunt Cass and her to help Tadashi up the stairs. The wheelchair is left at the bottom in favor of a crutch and Aunt Cass's arms. With many winces and lots of pain-filled sounds, Tadashi finally makes it to the first level of their house.

"You're going to be sleeping on the couch - or at least a cot - or at least my room - for a _long time,_ mister," Aunt Cass says. Tadashi doesn't argue, he'd known that with his legs as they were that getting to his and Hiro's room was never even an option. The kitchen and television and all the spare blankets are kept on the main floor of the Hamada household anyways, and Tadashi won't have to worry about waking Hiro up in the middle of the night, so it really is a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Hiro bypasses the sitting area where Aunt Cass is helping lower Tadashi down onto the couch, and hobbles up the stairs, completely silent except for hissing in pain as he takes each step. Turen snaps something at him, and whispers hurriedly into Hiro's ear, but neither Tadashi nor Aunt Cass can make out what she says that has Hiro shaking his head and disappearing into his and Tadashi's room.

Mochi walks over to the bottom of the stairs and looks up at where Hiro had disappeared with concern, and then looks back to Cass and shakes his little calico head. Aunt Cass sighs, and Tadashi feels like something is broken between the three of them. Especially between him and Hiro.

"I touched Turen," he blurts out to Aunt Cass.

Aunt Cass pauses, and looks at her oldest nephew. "When? And besides, you boys have been stumbling over each others daemons in the middle of the night for years now - if it's not deliberate then-"

"It was though," Tadashi says. "Hiro had her carry me out of the fire, and now he's not talking to me, and I don't know if that's the reason or if there's something else that he's giving me the silent treatment for but I-"

Aunt Cass cuts off Tadashi's rambles before he could pour the rest of his soul out to her with a single finger pressed against his lips. She looks at him, sits down beside him on the couch - on his left side - and then, still being careful of the bandages and burns on his face near his hairline, gently runs her hand through his hair to calm him.

"Tadashi, honey, just breathe," she says, comfortingly, and he does. He takes a breath. Amalthea jumps up onto the couch on the other side and, minding his arm, carefully nuzzles her head into his lap. Tadashi doesn't feel deserving of all this comfort though. Not when Hiro dragged him from the fire with his daemon and his bare hands, and Callaghan is resting in ashes six feet under.

"Go check on Hiro," Tadashi chokes out. "Please?" He needs to be alone right now. Or as alone as he can be with Amalthea's head still a heavy, unwavering weight upon his thighs.

Aunt Cass makes a face, and looks for a moment as if she's going to disagree and stay at Tadashi's side. Then she sighs and stands up. "Just shout if you need me, okay?" Mochi dutifully follows her as she goes over to the stairs and climbs them.

Hiro is on his bed, lying on top of the blankets, with his legs stretched out and his hands holding Turen close to his chin and chest. Turen is a cat again, something quiet and warm and comforting, but small enough to still be held. Aunt Cass catches the tail end of a whispered conversation, of Turen's muffled voice saying "I'm sorry" and Hiro only shaking his head and burying his nose into her dark fur.

"Hiro?" Cass says.

Hiro peaks up from over Turen's back, and Turen turns her head and ears to face Cass as well. The nearly identical look in their eyes has Cass pausing for a moment, because the feline face matches but still just _doesn't quite fit_ Hiro. Turen likely won't be settling as a cat, despite all the frequent times she's shifted into one.

"How are you feeling. You need anything?" She sits at the edge of the bed, and puts a gentle hand on one of Hiro's ankles. He doesn't move his leg. Mochi hops up onto the bed beside her, but keeps his distance, purring from afar to amplify Turen's purrs and help things along.

Hiro shakes his head. "I think I'm just… going to go to bed. Thanks though."

Turen looks apologetically at Cass when Hiro shifts as best he can to curl up and turn away. Cass stands, and bites her lip, thinking about the state that this fire has left both her boys in, and fights the urge to break. "Alright, well, like I told Tadashi, shout if you need me." And she leaves when Hiro hums in acknowledgement. Leaving her youngest in the dark room that had almost became only his.

Tadashi ends up taking the couch as a semi-permanent sleeping place, because it's easy to get on and off of, and allows easy access if he needs anything. Hiro barely leaves his room. When he does, he rarely if ever talks to Tadashi, only looks over at the couch where Tadashi sits with blank eyes and Turen perched on his shoulder as a cold, standoffish type of bird that they've never seen her become before. Things are tense, and they don't get better. Tadashi has to miss the funeral service for Callaghan, furthering the oppressive mood. The loud cafe below their home seems to be the only source of sound during the days, because no one else in the Hamada house is speaking except for hushed tones, as they tiptoe around issues and boundaries.

It's a month and a half later after everything fell apart when Hiro stubs his toe against the side of the bed.

His legs are pretty much healed, the burns fading and the pain gone, but the thick impact of toe to wood still sends lightning lancing up his shin.

"Ow!" Hiro yelps, startling Turen from where she'd been sitting on his desk lamp. Her wings go up and she puffs her feathers very slightly, and stays tense when a faint beeping comes from Tadashi's side of the room followed by a rush of air.

Baymax inflates, very slowly, very softly, and then blinks at Hiro. Hiro stares back, mouth hanging open very slightly. Turen chirps, "Isn't that Tadashi's robot, Baymax?"

"Yeah…" Hiro answers, standing to face Baymax as the robot waddles over to him. "But I thought he'd been… Baymax, I thought you were deactivated?"

"I was alerted to the need for medical attention when you said: Ow," Baymax recites, ignoring Hiro and approaching. "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"

Hiro stumbles backwards when Baymax just keeps getting closer, "Leave it to Tadashi to build a buggy robot," he grumbles without heat, still remembering just how awed he had been with Baymax and still is. "A zero," Hiro says to Baymax, "You can shrink now."

"Zero is not on my scale. Does it hurt when I touch it?" Baymax bends over, further into Hiro's space, and reaches for his feet. Turen cackles in amusement when Hiro yelps and trips backwards, falling onto the ground beside his bed.

"Wh- hey! No touching!" Hiro shouts, struggling with Baymax, hands and fingers still stiff and bandaged. When no escape from Baymax's pudgy balloon fingers presents itself, Hiro glances around for another angle out, and then he rolls himself under the bed.

Turen laughs even louder at that, and Baymax bends to try and look under the bed. "Anything cool under there, Hiro? I bet there's only nerdy stuff actually, oh, like you! I rest my case," Turen jokes.

Hiro huffs and hunches his shoulders, trying to push himself to a place under the bed where he can climb out from under it and make a break for the stairs to get Tadashi so he can deactivate Baymax, because he certainly doesn't remember how to. In all his shuffling, Hiro pushes aside the blue jacket that he'd worn the night of the Expo, and then he stops moving when something in the pocket shifts and jiggles.

Hiro emerges from under the bed quietly as he examines very closely the trembling microbot in his hands. He can remember working for weeks on the tiny robots, but now they were all gone, eaten up by the fire. Except for this one.

Turen hops over, and shifts into a quizzical little raccoon, with grabby hands and intelligent eyes. "What's that? A microbot?" she asks, reaching out to bat at the microbot. Hiro pulls it away from her, and Turen pouts, watching as Hiro drops it into a petri dish.

"It's broken," Hiro says, shutting the lid on the petri dish.

He had almost forgotten about Baymax, until the large robot leans its body against Hiro's back and begins patting his head unprovoked. "It is alright. You will fix it," Baymax says. Hiro splutters and passes the dish to Turen for her to set it down on his desk, and then he turns and tries to shove Baymax away by the stomach.

"Hey! Let go, I said no touching!" Hiro says, wincing when he hits Baymax with his knuckles at a wrong angle, and the still healing burns begin to sting.

"Hiro."

"Not now Turen I'm tryin to fight this-"

"It will be alright."

"Stop saying that you big marshmallow!"

" _Hiro!_ "

Hiro stops struggling, and, chest heaving, glances over Baymax's arm to look at his daemon. Turen is still holding the petri dish that he'd passed to her, but she is turning now, holding the petri dish up in different places and staring intently at the microbot inside. "It keeps trying to go one direction," she hisses, little fingers curled around the edges of the dish. Hiro pushes Baymax's arms away finally and goes over to look at the dish with her, Baymax leaning over to look as well.

"Your tiny robot is trying to go somewhere," Baymax states.

Hiro narrows his eyes, and takes the dish from Turen's hands. "Impossible," he says, "All the other microbots and the neurocranial transmitter were destroyed in the fire. It can't be wanting to go anywhere because there's nowhere it's being told to go." He sets the dish down on the desk as a firm act of finality, and then turns to go sit down in his bean bag chair.

But then Baymax says, again, "Your tiny robot is trying to go somewhere." Turen yelps in surprise as Baymax picks up the dish. "In order to improve assistance to you as my patient, I will find where your tiny robot is trying to go."

By the time Hiro turns around again, it's too late. Faster than he had ever thought Baymax could possibly move, the nursebot is practically down the stairs already. Hiro can hear Tadashi's muffled voice through the floorboards say, "Baymax?" when Baymax bypasses the first floor and keeps on moving.

"Crud!" Hiro yelps, and finally startles into action. He doesn't even bother to grab for his jacket and tug it on, instead only stopping to hold an arm out for Turen so she can leap up and cling to his shoulders as they follow Baymax.

"Hiro? What- was that Baymax?" Tadashi calls out when Hiro stumbles and trips his way down the stairs, his head peaking up over the back of the couch as he cranes his neck to try and see what's going on. Amalthea's head is the same, and her pointed ears are up, showing that she is alert.

Hiro waves a hand but frantically keeps moving. "Yeah there's no problem gonna go find him bye!" he says in a rush, and before Tadashi can say anything else, he thumps his way down the last staircase, runs full speed through the cafe, and bursts out onto the streets of San Fransokyo.

Baymax ends up leading Hiro and Turen right to an abandoned factory that's not necessarily on the bad side of town, but still pretty creepy. Hiro isn't usually uncomfortable in these kinds of areas after years of botfighting, but as he looks up at the warehouse before him, he still feels his breath catch in his throat a little. The grimy windows are boarded up, even the broken ones, and the large doors into the warehouse are locked tight with a thick padlock and heavy chain. Yet still, the microbot is adamant, banging against its petri dish prison almost aggressively.

"I have found where your tiny robot wants to go," Baymax says innocently, and Hiro scrunches up his nose and glares at the healthcare robot. He snatches the petri dish from Baymax's hands and shoves it into his pocket.

"Come on, let's get you home. You're Tadashi's project. He'll probably murder me if you got damaged," Hiro grumbles. But then suddenly Turen leaps from his shoulders, and begins to climb the wall of the warehouse. "Wh- Turen!" Hiro splutters as he spins around, just in time to see the striped raccoon tail disappear into an open window high above his head.

He can feel, in his chest, the tug of the bond between daemon and human. Turen is pulling at it by putting this distance between them, trying to lure Hiro into the warehouse. "Come on," she whispers loudly, poking her nose out of the window. "I just want to see. I feel like there's something important here."

Hiro huffs, and then a few minutes later - with a boost up from Baymax - is clambering into the warehouse through the open, rusty, rotating window.

"You stay there Baymax," Hiro commands, leaning his head out the window just a bit.

"I wish to help," Baymax answers simply, reaching up for the window again.

Hiro waves his hands about and shakes his head. "No, no, you won't be any help here," he says. If possible, Baymax looks a little dejected. The robot lowers his arms, and agrees to remain outside the warehouse until Hiro returns. Hiro breathes a sigh of relief, and then ducks back into the dark warehouse.

He can feel his and Turen's bond being tugged on, a sharp jolt in his chest every time she tries to step too far. "Turen, stop it. That hurts," Hiro hisses, rubbing at his chest as he walks across the metal catwalk and descends the stairs to the base floor. It's hard concrete, and there are broken beams and wooden planks scattered around the perimeter, with only a few crates left, intact but abandoned. Whatever the warehouse had been used for in the past, it certainly isn't being used for that same purpose now.

"Turen," Hiro hisses, creeping forwards in the dim lighting. There's some sort of dull blue light coming from around a corner, and a low mechanical clicking, and Hiro dreads what he will find if he follows his daemon over in that direction.

But he does follow, and around the corner are two robotic arms behind foggy glass, working away at some unknown project. There are barrels too, rows and rows of dark barrels filled with something frightening and ominous. "Turen," Hiro whispers again, heart in his throat. He doesn't like the familiar glint of the things in the barrels. He doesn't like the cold feeling of the dry warehouse air against his clammy palms. So he clenches his fists and looks in a different direction. "Turen, where are you? We shouldn't be here."

"Hiro." Turen says from the darkness, voice wobbling with fright, and Hiro turns towards the filled barrels again. There she is, his daemon, perched on the edge of a barrel, somehow managing to look scared and mournful at the same time as she runs her little hands through the small things before her. "Hiro. You need to see this. These are your microbots."

Hiro staggers to the edge of the same barrel she sits on, and digs his hands into the microbots. He brings up a handful, and watches numbly as they fall through his fingers, something like nausea building in his stomach. "No. No," he chokes, shaking his head. The microbots plink and click against each other as they drop. Hiro looks out over the sea of black microbots before him. "Someone's… someone's making _more."_

When the microbots rise up from the depths, building on each other until they make twisted stalagmites of danger, Hiro doesn't try to stop and do anything. He only runs. Turen shifts into a fast little falcon beside him, a Merlin perhaps, and keeps close to his head as he slides into walls and down into warehouse vents trying to escape the microbots. His microbots. His microbots that someone _stole._

The window that Hiro and Turen entered through ends up also being their exit, and Hiro is so, so grateful for Baymax when the robot catches him after he tumbles out and nearly falls. His legs and hands are aching, but Hiro knows he can't stop now. Microbots are crawling out the window after him and if he doesn't keep running they'll get him and they'll get Turen and Baymax and all three of them will never see Tadashi or Aunt Cass or Tadashi's friends again.

Hiro turns, only for a moment, to grab onto Baymax's arm and pull, when he meets the yellow painted eyes of the man in the kabuki mask. Turen screeches, and it brings him back, and then Hiro drags Baymax up through the streets of San Fransokyo, away from the warehouse and away from the man who just tried to _kill_ _him._

He doesn't even realize until later that the man in the kabuki mask had no daemon with him.

This fact contributes to the disbelief of the police officer, when Hiro tries to tell him all about what happened.

"Microbots! They're microbots. You control them telepathically with a neurocranial transmitter and-"

"Spare me the rambling explanation, kid," The officer drawls, looking tired, his entire face sagging in the way that shows he's gone many a night without sleep. His daemon, an old brown bulldog sitting behind the desk beside him, rolls her eyes.

"He's telling the truth!" Turen shouts, angry at the officer and the way he is just writing her human off. The bulldog daemon huffs, and Turen clacks her beak at the dog.

The officer raises an eyebrow. "A man in a kabuki mask, separated from his daemon, attacked you, with your microbots and neurowhatsit," he summarizes, and somehow manages to make it sound like Hiro's story is the most terrible joke he's ever heard. He doesn't believe them, and Hiro feels so angry and tired and overwhelmed and-

Suddenly, Baymax emits a loud, distressing beep sound. Hiro turns to him in panic, wondering for a moment if maybe the microbots had landed a hit on Tadashi's project that Hiro hadn't noticed. But then, Baymax is holding up a finger, and slumping forwards, and the sound he makes almost sounds like _laughter._

"Baymax- hey- hey keep it together buddy!" Hiro pushes his hands against Baymax's chest again, though this time it's not to ward the robot away, but to keep him standing.

Baymax sways and laughs again, and his little round black eyes blink sluggishly. "Loooooow battery."

The police officer groans, and turns around to get something. "Look kid, why don't we call your parents."

"What?!"

Hiro books it out of there, dragging Baymax with him, and by the time the officer turns around again with a clipboard in his hand there is no one there to hand it to. The old bulldog grumbles to herself before rolling over and falling asleep.

Tadashi isn't on the couch when Hiro stumbles in, but rather is sitting at their dining table, laptop open on the table in front of him as he stretches out his back from what had likely been a long day of typing away with only one hand, as the other was still in a sling. Amalthea is curled up on Tadashi's feet, but her head lifts when Hiro and Turen enter. Hiro freezes at the top of the stairs, staring at Tadashi as they lock eyes, before quickly trying to push Baymax down out of sight before Tadashi can notice him.

"Hey! You're back! What happened earlier?" Tadashi greets them, leaning back in his chair. "I see Baymax there with you, where did he go?"

Amalthea stands up, languidly stretching out her back in an arch, and approaches Hiro. Turen is now a rat again, sitting in his pocket, and Amalthea nudges her nose at Turen's hiding place. Hiro jumps away almost immediately, moving his hands out of Amalthea's reach, and pointedly doesn't look up to see Tadashi's expression, instead looking away and rubbing at the back of his neck.

"Yeah. Just random places. I chased him all around the city." Hiro drags Baymax up the stairs by his arm and then shoves him forwards, pushing Amalthea back rudely and causing Baymax to nearly stumble. Tadashi makes an aborted motion to stand, but then winces and sits back down. The crutches by his chair clatter to the floor.

Hiro fights back a grimace at the reminder of Tadashi's current injuries, but pushes the concern away before it can convince him to turn back and offer help.

"Keep a tighter leash on your nurse-bot next time, nerd," he says, without heat, before rushing up the stairs into their room with Turen. He needs to process all that he has just seen; the microbots and the masked man, and he cannot do that if Tadashi is sitting there injured and burnt and looking at Hiro so sadly.

Hiro slumps into his desk chair, and Turen passes the microbot from his pocket up to his fingers. He sits there, rolling it between his thumb and his pointer finger, staring at it intensely for a few quiet minutes.

"What are you thinking?" Turen asks him softly. "I can practically see the steam coming out of your ears," she adds, with a weak little chuckle.

"They said the microbots were destroyed," Hiro answers. "In the fire. Not one was salvaged." He lets the little bot roll into the center of his palm, and then closes his fingers around it in a fist. "But I'm thinking now that they weren't. And that the fire wasn't even an accident."

Hiro still remembers the bright flames and the way the heated metal that pinned his brother to the ground had burned and stung his fingers. He still remembers the white hospital rooms and the terrifying sight of Tadashi lying in a white bed with an oxygen mask over his face, of himself waking up with a similar mask on. He still remembers the feeling of letting Turen carry Tadashi because he loves his brother so much and was so afraid and just couldn't carry Tadashi on his own, but Tadashi doesn't really care for him at all because he ran in after someone else who was already doomed and left Hiro behind and -

If all that suffering, Hiro thinks, if all that suffering was because of one man who had wanted Hiro's microbots for his own, then Hiro will not be held responsible if he destroys something while trying to stop that man.

Turen tilts her head, and looks up at Hiro with her large eyes. "... and what are you going to do about it?" she prompts quietly, already knowing the answer.

Hiro opens his mouth to respond, but he doesn't get a chance. The microbot begins to shake in his fist, and in shock he loosens his fingers only slightly. It's enough wiggle room for the microbot to launch free though, and it shoots through the air to plunk heavily against the window as if drawn by a magnet.

With wide eyes, Turen and Hiro stare at it, and then each other

"Oh no," they both gasp in horror, before suddenly Hiro's window is being wrenched open, and a large black mass made of microbots is surging in towards them. Hiro screams and leaps from his chair, trying to make it to the stairs. But before he can reach them, the microbots latch around his waist and draw him back like a monster from a horror film drags its victims into the vague darkness. Turen has also been grabbed, and she squeaks in panic loudly in time with Hiro's own yells that he manages to get out before there are microbots everywhere, crawling over his face and covering his mouth, silencing him.

"Hiro?!" Tadashi's voice calls from the bottom of the stairs in worry, and Hiro goes still, his eyes impossibly wide, his heart thundering in his chest. Oh god, Tadashi's just downstairs.

The man in the kabuki mask has to crouch to get in through the small, open window. He looks impossibly large against the sloping ceiling of Hiro and Tadashi's attic room.

"That's right," the man says, his voice like gravel, clearly disguised with a voice modifier. "Be quiet. Don't want to drag your brother into this."

"Hiro? Answer me! You okay up there?"

Hiro breathes heavily through his nose as the masked man approaches the stairway. He shakes his head as much as he can, but his protests are muffled.

"Don't make me send Baymax up! Or get Aunt Cass! You know I can't get up those stairs right now."

The masked man looks back at Hiro. "Tell him you're alright, and only that, or your daemon gets _crushed._ "

Hiro's gaze impulsively flickers over to Turen, who is looking pitiful and small with a black ring of microbots squeezing her around the middle. How far the kabuki masked man must have fallen from human dignity if he feels no guilt or other emotion over how he is handling another person's daemon. The only step lower would have been if he were holding Turen with his own two hands.

The reality of the situation hits Hiro in that moment. In building the microbots, he has given the world a perfect weapon to manipulate and harm other people's daemons without touching them, and it is being used against him right now. Hiro feels just as afraid and pitiful and small as Turen looks. He can do nothing but nod to the masked man.

The microbots crawl away from his mouth slowly, and Hiro takes a gasping breath before calling down to Tadashi. "I'm f-fine. Just. Tripped on something. Probably Mochi." He doesn't sound convincing. The masked man approaches the stairs again, and Hiro blurts out in panic, "OOoooo that darn cat! Y'know?"

Tadashi doesn't say anything for a moment, but then he yells up, "Bonehead. Try not to be so clumsy, okay?"

Hiro breathes out a tense breath. "Yeah, I'll do my best. No promises though bro." His tone must have been natural enough, _just enough_ , to satisfy the masked man, because he steps away from the stairs, nods once sharply, and the microbots do not cover Hiro's mouth again.

"I'm just amused," the masked man says, walking closer to Hiro, "that you and your daemon thought you could just run away from me without consequence."

Hiro hisses through his teeth as the microbots shift around him and pull him closer, pinning his arms to his sides. "Yeah, well, I…" He trails off, unable to think of any kind of good comeback. His clever wit always seems to fail him when he panics.

"Hmm?" The masked man tilts his head, but then drops the subject when Hiro's face pinches in pain again. He takes another step closer. "I want to know if you've told anyone about me," he demands.

Hiro frowns, and shakes his head, the officer at the desk with the drooping face at the forefront of his mind. Even though the man hadn't believed him, he still had the knowledge of what Hiro had tried to tell him.

The microbots twisted around Hiro's chest, and cover his mouth quickly as he lets out a surprised groan of pain. Turen panics beside him in the hold the microbots have on her, thrashing about and scratching at the metal and trying to reach for Hiro. The microbots shift, and with a gesture of his hand, the masked man sends Turen to the opposite side of the room. The distance isn't much, but Hiro and Turen still feel it, and Hiro grunts and slumps against the microbots as the pain buzzes in his chest and ribs.

"Tell me who you've told," the masked man repeats.

The microbots retract from Hiro's mouth again. "No one. I told no one," he breathes desperately, willing the man to believe him.

"A smart boy like you wouldn't tell no one." The man ruffles his hair, and Hiro cringes back. "Unless..." The hand pulls away, and there's a sharp, rough laugh from the man, "Unless you were planning to come after me _yourself._ "

Hiro looks away.

"All alone, you wouldn't have, and still don't, stand a chance."

"He's not alone."

Hiro's head whips up to stare at the stairway, where Baymax is standing, holding a grimacing Tadashi in his arms. Amalthea is snarling, and wastes no time in lunging between the masked man and Hiro, barking and snapping her teeth at the threat. Though she won't touch him, those bared white teeth are still a frightening sight to see, and the masked man stumbles in surprise. He clearly hadn't expected Tadashi to try and push his injuries to come to Hiro's aid, and neither had Hiro.

"Idiot!" Hiro blurts out. "Tadashi, leave! You're not-"

Tadashi shakes his head, and Baymax hitches his creator up a bit higher in his arms. "I wasn't going to leave you to whatever was up here alone, Hiro."

Hiro struggles and squirms, trying to fight his way out of the microbots while the masked man is still distracted by Amalthea. "How did you even know something was wrong?"

Tadashi smirked and rolled his eyes. "Your excuse was that you tripped on Mochi. Which is ridiculous. Aunt Cass was down in the cafe. She's on the phone with the police now though."

Hiro blanches, and the masked man lets out a furious growl. He thrusts his hands out at Tadashi, and Hiro screams as the black robots roll towards his helpless brother like a crashing wave, only to be stopped as Amalthea takes a daring lunge for the masked man's arm. He drops his focus to try and swipe her aside again when her teeth catch on the sleeve of his coat, letting the microbots tremble and fall from their path towards Tadashi and Baymax. Amalthea releases her bite to dance away on quick paws once more, never touching the masked man.

Another growl brakes the air then, matching in harmony with the masked man's frustrated and furious sounds, and through the window, clawing up on the ladder microbots, comes a large wolf.

Tadashi sucks in a sharp breath of recognition, but the wolf doesn't even spare him a glance. The wolf wastes no time in lunging for Amalthea, snapping even sharper teeth at the smaller dog's face, ears, and neck.

Amalthea also recognizes the wolf though, and she rears back and yelps in shock. "Zaila?!" she cries disbelievingly. Zaila, like Callaghan, like the microbots, all should have been lost in the fire, and the terrible truth that is unfolding here in Hiro and Tadashi's room is proving all that to be wrong.

Zaila takes Amalthea's surprise as an opening though, and latches her jaws around the dog daemon's neck. Tadashi grunts and flinches at the feeling that passes between him and his daemon while Zaila wrestles Amalthea into submission using her hold on her neck, growling and snarling like a beast.

And the masked man - Callaghan - stands there, calmly watching it all happen, like he knows he is in control. And Hiro cannot take it anymore.

 _"Callaghan!"_ Hiro roars, because in that moment, he hates this man who is trying to take everything from him, who already almost succeeded once before, more than he's ever hated anything in his life.

Hiro can feel it, when it happens. Something shifts inside his chest and mind, and ripples down the connection between him and Turen. Turen's small form begins to shift, and her eyes are wide in fear at whatever is happening to her. It's not voluntary. The shifting isn't voluntary this time and the microbots fall away around her as her small rat body expands into dark fur and a strong body and sharp eyes. But she lets it happen, because what's happening is inevitable, as natural as the wind, as long coming as the dawn.

She settles.

There are two wolves in the room now; one of them is Zaila, Callaghan's old but powerful grey wolf daemon, who still has her dangerous teeth in the scruff of Amalthea's neck, and the other is Turen, Hiro's young and volatile daemon with fur just a distinguishing shade darker than the silver of Zaila's coat.

Turen looks back and forth between her paws and Hiro with surprise, and then with a pause in which Hiro sees understanding flood her new eyes, she knows what Hiro wants her to do. There is no hesitation in her when she moves, rippling muscles beneath thick, new grown fur.

She charges for Zaila, knocking the older wolf away from Amalthea, and with a snarl begins to battle her, letting the weakened dog daemon limp away over to Tadashi's side. The microbots uncoil from around Hiro as Callaghan stumbles from the impact of Turen's head with Zaila's side, and Hiro mirrors his daemon as he lunges for Callaghan and reaches up to try and claw the mask away. Amalthea and Tadashi watch in shock as it all unfolds, both too weak now to offer much in the way of help.

"Give me that- give me my neurocranial transmitter!" Hiro shouts, as he knocks Callaghan down and punches and kicks whatever of the man that he can. The microbots spasm on the floor of the room, curling and uncurling into and out of jagged spirals and rigid angles as they struggle to obey the scrambled commands sent from them from the transmitter. The ones that were left outside the window seem to be falling away from the structure as Callaghan's focus is pulled away from keeping them all together in one solid mass. "It's _mine_ and I won't let you use it to hurt anyone _anymore!_ "

Hiro finally manages to get his fingers under the lip of the mask, and in the struggle, he shoves his hand upwards. The white mask with its red painted lines flies off of Callaghan's face, and the microbots immediately drop lifelessly where they are. But Hiro isn't done yet, just as Turen and Zaila aren't done. He claws with his blunted nails at Callaghan's face, remembering how it felt to claw at burning metal while trying to save his brother. Callaghan is larger and stronger than him, but Hiro's fury makes him powerful, and it's all Callaghan can do to keep Hiro from gouging out his eyes.

"Hiro!" Tadashi croaks, and Amalthea makes an aborted motion forwards with her front paws. Hiro is completely lost to his fury, trying to tear Callaghan apart with his bare hands, more predator than boy now, and Tadashi is _frightened_. He's frightened Hiro is going to lose himself. He reaches out towards Hiro with trembling hands, wanting desperately to pull Hiro away, but he's too weak, and Hiro is too angry.

A door down in the house bangs open. Tadashi knows it's the police finally arriving. Aunt Cass probably let them in. He has to get Hiro to stop before they get up all the stairs and see what's happening. _"Hiro!"_ he cries again, louder this time.

Hiro pauses just enough to look over at Tadashi with wild, angry, _hurt,_ eyes, and then Callaghan is punching Hiro in the chest hard enough for something to crack.

"Oh god, _Hiro!_ " Tadashi screams as he watches his brother go down, gasping around what is certainly a fractured rib. He wishes his legs were healed, and his arm, and the burns on his face, so that he could go over and punch Callaghan right back. Tadashi understands in that moment what had been driving Hiro in his frantic attack on the ex-professor's person. But all he can do is lean weakly against Baymax's chest, shaking. Amalthea growls low in her throat, curling around Baymax's legs protectively.

But suddenly there is the sound of pounding footsteps coming up the stairs, and Tadashi sags in relief as the police finally arrive.

"Excuse me Tadashi, but we must get out of the way," Baymax cuts in, and then waddles further up the stairs. He still holds Tadashi close, but presses himself into the corner, as three or more policemen come in and immediately lock their sights on Callaghan. Callaghan is dressed in black, and looks every bit the part of a supervillain intruder. No time is wasted, the police immediately leaping at Callaghan and pinning him to the ground before he can escape through the broken bedroom window. Seconds later he's fully restrained and handcuffed. The old man shouts wildly at the police, but they just grimmly drag him to his feet by each arm.

Zaila and Turen are a struggle to separate, but the moment that Zaila has a metal loop around her neck, and is being pulled down the stairs with her human, she goes docile, her head and tail hanging. She knows when she's been beaten. But Turen waits until the older wolf has vanished out of sight down the stairs before hurries to Hiro's side.

One of the policeman, hand holding his walkie talkie to his ear and requesting an ambulance, glances at Turen a bit nervously as she comes by, but he's professional enough to refrain from commenting. As she approaches Tadashi commands Baymax to set him down beside his brother so he can grab onto Hiro's hand and hold it tightly.

"Hiro, Hiro it's over," Tadashi breathes. He doesn't really know what is over, but there is a feeling in the air that this could have become so much _bigger_ , so much worse if Hiro hadn't managed to stop it in time, that he can't help but say something. "You're gonna be okay little brother. We're gonna be okay."

Hiro wheezes, but grins up at Tadashi with tired eyes and a tired smile. Amalthea noses at Hiro's hair to comfort him, and Hiro's eyes go wide at the contact. Tadashi smiles and holds Hiro's hand tighter.

But then Turen tries to press herself to Hiro's other side, and Hiro physically recoils.

None of them have time to worry about this reaction before Hiro is being picked up by the arriving medics, taken down the stairs, and taken to the hospital. Turen follows, but Tadashi can see the drooping line of her ears and tail. She has settled, finally, but it's not as happy a moment as everyone surely expected it to be.

* * *

Hiro does have a fractured rib. Callaghan had once been involved in the military, and so the power behind that punch to Hiro's small chest had been more than enough to crack it. Tadashi is grateful it's not something worse, is grateful it's not a punctured lung. He's just stupidly grateful they're all okay.

But Hiro won't look Turen in the eye, and so Tadashi knows they're not out of the woods just yet.

"Our room is a mess, you know. I think we should rope our friends into cleaning it for us," Tadashi says when the hospital discharges Hiro the next day. They had kept him overnight only because it had already been so late when they'd come in, and they'd wanted to make sure he didn't develop any breathing troubles. "Because I don't know about you, but I think we deserve some down time. Aunt Cass too. So we can't have her do it."

Hiro stays quiet for a minute, before nodding. "Alright. Yeah. I'll just stay in the garage though while they're all over."

Tadashi frowns in worry, and Amalthea whimpers. She tries to press herself to Turen, but Turen is behaving similarly to Hiro, melancholy and broody, and so she steps away.

"Hey, you stopped the bad guy, we got your microbots back, and Turen's settled!" Tadashi says exasperatedly as puts his hand on Hiro's shoulder. Then says a bit more gently, "What's all this about?"

Hiro shrugs. "I just… don't want anyone to see Turen yet." Hiro looks away, eyes downcast and looking so miserable, and Tadashi suddenly understands.

He's good at that, understanding Hiro and the subtle messages that Hiro leaves behind in what he both says and does not say. It had been why he'd been so frustrated before, in the immediate aftermath after the fire, when he couldn't grasp why Hiro wasn't speaking to him until Amalthea had nuzzled against Hiro's head and he recognized that Hiro had felt like the love and importance and priority he'd placed on Tadashi wasn't reciprocated. Now though, after the whirlwind of all that had happened, after seeing Zaila's teeth digging into his own daemon and then grappling dangerously with Hiro's, Tadashi understands.

Wolves are predators. They are ominous, and dangerous, and powerful. People had forgotten that about Callaghan, for all they saw was a kind old man with an old tame daemon. Never, in all of Hiro and Turen's years trying out different animals, had they ever, ever tried out a wolf. In the most recent months, it had been a steady cycle of birds, cats, and intelligent rodents. An occasional octopus or two as well when Turen was feeling mischievous. Hiro had never liked the idea of Turen settling as a dog, not when Tadashi already had Amalthea, and he hadn't liked the idea of Turen settling as a cat either, not when Aunt Cass and Mochi were around to fill that spot. So while Turen _had_ occasionally tried out being a cat, she'd avoided canine and feline forms for the most part.

But now Turen has settled as a wolf, something that now had such bad connotations attached to it because of the selfish actions of one bad man, when she had never ever shifted into a wolf before, and it must feel like the largest betrayal to Hiro.

Tadashi looks down at Turen, who is looking at the ground, sad and almost ashamed. Her taking the form of a wolf also means something about Hiro. They all just don't know what it is yet. All Hiro can see was that he's like a villain, and that's just not allowed to fly with Tadashi.

"Hey. Look at me, Hiro."

Hiro looks up at his big brother. Tadashi smiles reassuringly.

"They won't care. It'll be alright."

* * *

Tadashi still has the couch to sleep on, because his legs are still in terrible shape. Even after a month and a half of healing, the recent activity has set him back a few steps. Now though, Hiro has joined him on a cot in the corner of the family room. His bed had been cracked by the weight of the microbots, and so it would still need to be fixed. It's also easier with them sleeping close again, Hiro around to get things for Tadashi when he needs them, and Tadashi making sure Hiro's breathing isn't obstructed at any point in the night. It was a small fracture, and the doctors had assured them all that Hiro would be fine, but the worry is still there. Baymax's helpful presence in the room helps as well to alleviate some of that concern.

Hiro goes to bed that night silent, with Turen curled up dejectedly under the cot, even quieter than usual. The two of them have been nervous all night, dreading the day to come. The next day all their friends are coming to help with the clean up, and while Tadashi knows they'd be supportive, Hiro still seems nervous. Tadashi remembers how they were supportive of Hiro when they'd barely known him, and helped him through the struggle of inventing the microbots, so Tadashi knows they'd be even more invaluable now. He really does have such good friends. Now if only Hiro and Turen could realize that.

As much as Hiro and Turen might wish otherwise, the next day dawns bright and early, and with it comes their friends. The first one to arrive is Wasabi. And he brings with him an arsenal of cleaning supplies. His chinchilla daemon announces their arrival by scurrying over to Tadashi where he fell asleep with his hat still on, taking the brim of his hat in her little teeth, and wrenching it off of his head.

"Rise and shine!" she chirps, and Tadashi turns to glare with a dead tired expression on his face at his friend. It is too early. Far too early, but Wasabi only looks triumphant.

Hiro wakes up on the other side of the room with a snort, jolted by the unfamiliar voice. He looks up, coughs a bit to get his chest stirred up, and runs a hand through his even messier hair. "'s it time to clean already?" he mumbles. Turen crawls out from under the cot, and for a moment Wasabi freezes at the sight of her.

Tadashi sits up as best he can, and throws Wasabi a sharp look. He told all his friends over the phone the night before about all that had happened, with Hiro and Callaghan and the microbots, so Wasabi had known what to expect. He has no excuse to freeze up.

"H-hey! Turen finally settled huh?" Wasabi says weakly after a moment. His chinchilla raises a little hand and facepalms. "Her fur is really dark. Very nice."

But the damage is done. Hiro's face has already closed off. "Yeah. I guess." he says, before standing from his cot. "I'm gonna go get some food. Feel free to get started upstairs with Tadashi." Instead of walking over to the kitchen that's connected to the room, Hiro trudges over to the stairs and descends into the cafe. Turen follows him, quietly. As soon as they're out of earshot Tadashi tosses his hat at Wasabi's head.

"Hey- dude what?!" Wasabi spluttered, as he bends to pick up the hat and return it to his friend.

"I know what you're thinking," Tadashi snaps. "That a wolf means he's dangerous."

Wasabi looks guilty. "Sorry," he says quietly, guilty. "Didn't mean to freeze up like that. Honest."

"No need to be sorry," Tadashi sighs. "Just. Hiro thinks he's dangerous now too. It's gonna be a struggle."

Wasabi groans. "And I just made it worse for the little guy, didn't I?" His daemon leaps from the couch to Wasabi's arm, climbs up to Wasabi's shoulder, and then smacks him on the cheek with her little paw. Her small whiskers and little black eyes are set in a deep, sad looking frown.

Tadashi shrugs, and leans on Amalthea's head when she walks over to the couch and presents herself to help him stay steady as he moves his legs off of the couch very slowly. Any time he moves too fast, he regrets it.

"When's everyone else getting here?" Tadashi asks, eager to change the subject.

Wasabi thankfully lets him, glancing at his watch and humming. "Gogo should be coming in like an hour. She had a morning route to run. Honey Lemon should be coming soon too. And Fred'll be here after some charity thing he had to do, so probably later in the day."

Tadashi nods, and then, with a little bit more struggling and hobbling, they get to work.

Gogo joins them sooner than Hiro does, up in the brothers' bedroom, entering with a bag of Chinese take out in her arms and another bag held in Hector's mouth. "I was in the area," she says in explanation, "and I brought extra fortune cookies for the walking sweet tooth you call a brother."

Tadashi, from where he is sitting over on his bed, smiles at her."Did you see him as you were coming up?"

Gogo frowns, and shakes her head apologetically. "Nope," she admits, before blowing and popping a bubble of gum.

Tadashi sighs helplessly.

Honey Lemon arrives next, energetic and optimistic and ready to help clean things up and put things back together. Her daemon immediately takes up a perch on one of Hiro's shelves, ready to oversee the cleaning progress from above. Tadashi asks Honey Lemon too if she saw Hiro, and gets a sinking feeling in his chest that Hiro really did go down to hide in the garage when Honey also says she didn't see him.

"How is he by the way?" Honey asks, quietly. "Everything happened so fast. He must be feeling so overwhelmed."

Tadashi knows she's right. He knows Hiro is overwhelmed. He groans and rubs at the back of his neck.

"He's been bottling it up," he tells them all quietly, his voice rough with exhaustion and revealing how tired he really is. "It only happened a few days ago after all. He hasn't really talked to anyone yet about the fire even." It's not healthy, it's not going to end well, and Tadashi doesn't know how to help this time. Hiro cannot survive alone, they both know that from Hiro's high school days. The bullying and isolation from his peers had sent Hiro into a depressed slump, which he'd only been drawn out of by Tadashi and Amalthea relentlessly spending time with him. He doesn't handle loneliness well, never had.

Hiro is not a lone wolf.

Tadashi freezes in the middle of putting a book back on the shelf. His eyes go wide, and he gasps softly. The realization, the cheesy phrasing of it and all, slams into Tadashi all at once. Hiro is not meant to be alone. He is meant to be with a pack, with friends that can protect him and help him and keep him safe and strong.

The others have stopped as well, watching him closely with concerned expressions, but when he breaks into a huge grin, they all relax slightly. The concern shifts to curiosity.

"Someone help me up," Tadashi demands, struggling on his bed. "Get Baymax to carry me or something. We've got an impromptu intervention to make happen!"

Gogo raises an eyebrow, but shrugs, and helps him up, giving him his crutches and sending Fred - who had only just come up the stairs - to find Baymax.

Hiro is indeed in the garage, just as Tadashi expected. They find him sitting in the red armchair at the back of the room, watching something on the computer screen without interest. Turen picks her head up when the group of college kids stumble their way in, and Hiro jumps.

"Tadashi! And friends! Heeeeey! Yeah I was just about to come up," Hiro lies, grinning weakly.

"No you weren't," Gogo deadpans. Hiro's face drops, and Turen snickers a bit at his side.

"Then what, you all down here to ambush me?" Hiro snarks, crossing his arms. His expression is defensive and calculating, and Tadashi definitely, now that he's already made the connection, can see the wolf in him. It fits. It fits so much better than any other animal Hiro and Turen have tried, but Callaghan has ruined his brother and Tadashi knows now that he can't waste any time in picking up the pieces. Not like he had after the fire in that month and a half of downward spiraling.

"We're not here to ambush you," Tadashi says carefully. Amalthea goes over to Turen, to stand by her, as Tadashi - with a bit of a struggle - approaches Hiro. Their daemons are so similar, but Hiro _has always been more aggressive, more ferocious than Tadashi, so it makes sense that his daemon would settle as something like Tadashi's only more wild._ "I'm here to say that I know why Turen settled as a wolf, and it's not because you're gonna end up going crazy and stealing someone's invention and then breaking into their house," Tadashi tells him with a chuckle, trying to lighten the mood.

But Hiro is stiff, his expression guarded. He's not convinced. "Yeah? Why then?"

Tadashi leans forwards and hugs his stiff little brother. Hiro squeaks and squirms a little, but otherwise doesn't try to escape.

"Because you need your pack, and they need you, and you're intelligent, and strong, and hard to control," Tadashi explains calmly. Hiro doesn't say anything, but he doesn't try to push Tadashi away either, so he takes it as a good sign. The rest of their friends watch in silence, not daring to break the moment between the two brothers that they are being allowed to observe.

"But that's okay, because that's who you are," Tadashi continues. "You're Hiro. Turen is Turen. I'm Tadashi. Amalthea is Amalthea. And Turen has settled as something that is perfect for you, little brother, and I can't let you push that part of yourself away."

Hiro brings his arms up slowly, and hugs Tadashi very tightly for a moment, before he's pushing away. Tadashi has a split second where he thinks Hiro is rejecting his words, but then he looks down at his little brother and feels himself relax. Hiro is rubbing at his face, his eyes a little wet and red, but he's fighting a trembling smile, and Tadashi is so relieved that his legs feel like they'll give out under him.

"Ugh, you're the worst. With your sappy words. And all your friends standing there," Hiro grumbles without bite, waving a hand at everyone and their daemons standing there for him. But he's grateful, Tadashi knows Hiro is. Turen whines, and bumps up against the back of Hiro's knees, and then with an odd choked sound Hiro drops and buries his face in Turen's dark fur.

After Hiro pulls out of the hug with his daemon, he has only really a few quiet moments of contentment to smile up at his brother before it's broken by Fred.

"Group hug on Hamada Jr.!" Fred crows, rushing forward. Turen dashes out of the way frantically, barely getting clear before there's suddenly there's a dog pile on top of Hiro that he definitely did not expect.

"Hamada Jr.?!" Tadashi splutters, from where he is pressed to Hiro's side by Honey Lemon and Wasabi. "Seriously, Fred?"

"I thought you said Fred was the best at nicknames?" Hiro grunts, trying to squirm and shimmy and get himself a little bit of elbow room. Gogo is really strong though, and she pins him in with her arms, smirking at him.

Their daemons are all huddled together too, pressing close where they can, surrounding Turen like the protective pack that they are. It's an unconventional pack, a mix-matched, thrown together group, but Hiro smiles against his big brother's shoulder, and both he and Turen finally relax their spinning minds and let the warm comforting feeling of belonging wrap around them.

* * *

Turen and Amalthea curl up together in a small little pile of fur and warmth and snuffling sounds when they go to sleep that night. Hiro flops onto the cot, exhausted but in the good way that's from a hard day of work and laughter with friends, and stares of up at the ceiling for a moment.

"You feeling better?" Tadashi whispers from the couch.

Hiro sighs into the darkness of the room, and takes a moment to speak. "Well, I never pegged myself as a wolf."

It will still take awhile. Of course it will. But for now, Tadashi only smiles at the fact that Hiro is no longer being withdrawn and silent, or thinking of Turen's settling as a mistake, or thinking of himself as dangerous. He tilts his head to look over the arm of the couch to look at his brother. "Neither did I. Yet look at those two useless canines. They look happy as can be with how things turned out."

"... I guess they do," Hiro assents.

Tadashi hums. "So?" he prods his brother. "You never answered me. Do you feel better?"

Hiro looks again at Amalthea and Turen curled up on the floor, and then at the bandages still on his fingers. He thinks of the fire, of black microbots and sharp teeth in snarling snouts, and friends and packs and belonging. He nods. "Yeah. I feel better."

In the darkness, two brothers grin.

* * *

 **AN: this was supposed to be short. this oneshot was supposed to b e . shor t . its obviously noT SHORT. It grabbed the wheel out of my hands and drove itself into the 14k+ word count. I screamed the entire time. I'm still screaming now. I love daemon AUs though. so much. so it was really interesting to try and incorporate them into the bh6 world.**

 **But yeah! T** **his was beta read/edited by my awesome friend Ikiracake who really deserves all the love for dealing with me and my ideas and my screaming of them at her.**

 **I hope you all enjoyed this! Feel free to ask me about the reasoning behind the daemon decisions. You should definitely leave me a review too *thumbs up***


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